Viking Village
To examine “writing for reals,” our group posted the following question on Viking Village:Do academic language (writing) expectations turn away students from learning and/or participating in Humanities classes? What emerged was a discussion about whether academic discourse was accessible and necessary or archaic and elitist. Our post even attracted posters like U.N. Peacekeeper to weigh in. He/she made the argument into a binary: either academic discourse is necessary for speaking clearly or it is an example of the elitist nature of Academia. Western students shot arguments back and forth about how their personal experience has shown them how students have been marginalized by the university jargon. That argument evolved into whether students should be expected to push themselves harder in these situations, or whether it is the university’s job to make their ideas more accessible. Some posters argued for a balance between the two, but most argued either for or against. Link to Viking Village Post 'Viking Village Post ' http://vikingvillage.wwu.edu/topic/opinions-academic-language Related Article Analysis But I Don’t Want to Think Like You '' Cathy McDonald McDonald’s Garron fought against the academic practice of analyzing texts in her English 101 class; he rebelled against the Western academic tradition of critically readings texts, arguing that it did not allow personal expression. After reading the posts on Viking Village, it turns out there are several people who would disagree with Garron. Daisy posted, for example that many of her friends are intimidated to participate in English classes because they fear the writing expectations. She argues these fears are unfounded because she has found English classes to be more “laid back.” However, she concentrates on grammatical instead of language expectations. She argues that English classes care more about the content of an essay than the grammar. McDonald’s Garron cited these expectations as his main issue with McDonald’s introductory class. Viking Village participant I Like People posted that she “was a lousy writer” who found academic language expectations to be a challenge, and her persistence led her to discover that academic writing “allows for a clearer relation of ideas and content” than conversational English. McDonald’s essay ''But I Don’t Want to Think Like You concentrates on students like Garron who have been marginalized by an academic language forged by Western thinkers and vastly different than their own form of discourse. The Viking Village posts demonstrate that students who have been brought in this type of discourse also don’t want to think like each other. While the students listed above find Standard American English to be a necessary form of discourse, a chemistry major, , argues these discourses are different without much crossover. The main point of his argument is that to explain anything to someone not a part of the discourse, the explainer needs to put his ideas into conversational English or risk losing the listener. He would disagree with I Like People because he believes that the academic discourses are not accessible to those on the outside. ''Convergence Culture '' Henry Jenkins Viking Village allows students to engage each other in multiple topics on multiple platforms. Viking Village itself is a convergence of academics, of art, of visuals, and of sound. It provides a generally safe space for Western students to show off videos, music, art and photography, as well as their own ideas. Beyond that, it exists as a space where students can sell books to one another, find rideshares, roommates and apartments. Overall, ideas and functionality converge on this digital platform solely for Western students. Our post on Viking Village presented a different type of convergence. Here students were able to converge academic analysis and personal experience. While this type of convergence differs from Jenkins definition, it is possible because of the format of Viking Village. What relates to Jenkins article is the idea of a participatory culture. The forum allows students to come together to argue and exchange ideas. They are able to both be an audience member and a participant. As a result, the thinking expected in humanities classrooms is able to occur voluntarily in a conversation. Unlike academic courses, there is no stipulation on Viking Village where a participant has to speak fluent “academese.” However, these participating on our thread of conversation came up with complex and well thought out answers to our questions. The conversational discourse was proved to be sufficient for an exchange of ideas about our topic even for students who argued for the necessity of academic writing expectations. The voluntary participation pairs with the conversational discourse to prove that individuals have the ability to discuss these large questions that the Humanities hold onto so dearly without using their language. While academic discourse might all for a more specific dissection of a topic, these students demonstrated that it is not the end all, be all form for academic conversation. ''Writing in the 21st Century '' Kathleen Blake Yancey According to Yancey, historically humans have an impulse to write. However, she also says that reading has been largely favored over writing because writing has been perceived as “too hard.” The types of writing people consider too hard, on the other hand, are works of composition like fiction or academic essays. This expectation comes from the fact that in school, we are taught to associate writing with testing, which adds an immense load of stress to any project. The expectations for “good writing” turn new writers away from the actual pleasure of the act of writing. The digital environment has altered these expectations. Forums like Viking Village allow social and academic conversation to converge. As Yancey states in one of her subtitles, “we are writing share, yes; to encourage dialogue, perhaps; but mostly, I think, to participate” (5). Like Jenkins states in his article, our generation has developed this participatory culture where we as consumers interact with the producers, and the lines between the two blur. This participation for Yancey, however, echoes more the message of Viking Village. On our post, people participated voluntarily, shared ideas, and debated over the necessity of Academic language. They did this of their own free will, and switched between audience members and participants of the conversation. Viking Village pushes this participation by allowing students to “like” others’ posts and reply directly. Students are able to interact with other participants writing by even copying and pasting the argument of the poster they’re trying to support or debate. Composition of this genre is not forced, but sought out by these students who choose to explore and write on Viking Village. Everything is organic; the only prompt is the first post of a conversation thread. Yancey’s article concerns itself with trying to prove why a new, digitally-aware education curriculum taught by digitally-aware teachers is vital for keeping students interactive with their learning environments and expanding their exploration of composing in this new era. Viking Village emphasizes how students don’t have to be in classrooms to compose, and how the digital age brings students together to create a network of composition and exchange of ideas.